The challenge of disentangling political communication processes and their effects has grown with the complexity of the new political information environment. But so have scientists’ toolsets and capacities to better study and understand them. This edited volume focuses on the use of Computational Communication Science (CCS) to address key questions in political communication, highlighting methodological innovations and the theoretical, practical, and institutional challenges in the field. Topics include clickbaiting, propaganda, political polarization, and media framing. The book starts by mapping the challenges and opportunities of data collection and analysis, focusing on computational methods to address theory-driven questions in political communication. Chapters highlight the theoretical, empirical, and institutional aspects of Computational Communication Science (CCS) relevant to the field, assessing the challenges of data requirements, digital signal semantics, and the crucial role of infrastructures, academic institutions, ethics, and training in computational methods. Considering all of these aspects, individual chapters showcase methodological innovations, applying CCS to topics like clickbaiting in the context of propaganda in authoritarian regimes, the visual content produced by political elites, political and affective polarization, and the media coverage of public policy as well as framing in the news media. The volume also offers scholarly contributions on the theoretical, practical, and institutional significance of CCS and the challenges in realizing its potential in political communication. A significant contribution to the field of political communication, this volume will be a key resource for scholars and researchers of communication studies, politics, media studies and sociology. It was originally published in Political Communication.

Provides clear guidance on leveraging computational techniques to answer social science questions In disciplines such as political science, sociology, psychology, and media studies, the use of computational analysis is rapidly increasing. Statistical modeling, machine learning, and other computational techniques are revolutionizing the way electoral results are predicted, social sentiment is measured, consumer interest is evaluated, and much more. Computational Analysis of Communication teaches social science students and practitioners how computational methods can be used in a broad range of applications, providing discipline-relevant examples, clear explanations, and practical guidance. Assuming little or no background in data science or computer linguistics, this accessible textbook teaches readers how to use state-of-the art computational methods to perform data-driven analyses of social science issues. A cross-disciplinary team of authors—with expertise in both the social sciences and computer science—explains how to gather and clean data, manage textual, audio-visual, and network data, conduct statistical and quantitative analysis, and interpret, summarize, and visualize the results. Offered in a unique hybrid format that integrates print, ebook, and open-access online viewing, this innovative resource: Covers the essential skills for social sciences courses on big data, data visualization, text analysis, predictive analytics, and others Integrates theory, methods, and tools to provide unified approach to the subject Includes sample code in Python and links to actual research questions and cases from social science and communication studies Discusses ethical and normative issues relevant to privacy, data ownership, and reproducible social science Developed in partnership with the International Communication Association and by the editors of Computational Communication Research Computational Analysis of Communication is an invaluable textbook and reference for students taking computational methods courses in social sciences, and for professional social scientists looking to incorporate computational methods into their work.

This book offers a framework for the analysis of political communication in election campaigns based on digital trace data that documents political behavior, interests and opinions. The author investigates the data-generating processes leading users to interact with digital services in politically relevant contexts. These interactions produce digital traces, which in turn can be analyzed to draw inferences on political events or the phenomena that give rise to them. Various factors mediate the image of political reality emerging from digital trace data, such as the users of digital services’ political interests, attitudes or attention to politics. In order to arrive at valid inferences about the political reality on the basis of digital trace data, these mediating factors have to be accounted for. The author presents this interpretative framework in a detailed analysis of Twitter messages referring to politics in the context of the 2009 federal elections in Germany. This book will appeal to scholars interested in the field of political communication, as well as practitioners active in the political arena.

As a consequence of the rapid diffusion of online media, the conditions for political communication, and research concerning it have radically changed. Is empirical communication research capable of consistently describing and explaining the changes in political communication in the online world both from a theoretical and methodological perspective? In this book, Gerhard Vowe, Philipp Henn, and a group of leading international experts in the field of communication studies guide the reader through the complexities of political communication, and evaluate whether and to what extent existing theoretical approaches and research designs are relevant to the online world. In the first part of the book, nine chapters offer researchers the opportunity to test the basic assumptions of prominent theories in the field, to specify them in terms of the conditions of political communication in the online world and to modify them in view of the systematically gained experiences. The second methodological section tests the variations of content analysis, surveys, expert interviews and network analyses in an online environment and documents how successful these methods of empirical analysis have proven to be in political communication. Written accessibly and contributing to key debates on political communication, this bookshelf essential presents an indispensable account of the necessary tools needed to allow researchers decide which approach and method is better suited to answer their online problem.

This book, with a foreword by Manuel Castells, explores the core strategies of digital political communication. It reviews the field’s evolution over the past 25 years and examines the coexistence of old and new actors (lobbyists, citizens, parliaments, political parties, media outlets, digital platforms, among others), as well as hybrid communication tactics. Topics covered include frames, fake news, filter bubbles, echo chambers, artificial intelligence, the significance of emotions, and engagement with citizens. As we find ourselves in the fourth wave of digital communication, and in the wake of a pandemic which has shaken the foundations of political communication, an evaluation of these topics is essential to the reinvention of democracy. The book is geared towards students and researchers who wish to delve into the latest trends in digital communication, political communication actors and journalists. It further aims to prepare citizens to effectively deal with messaging that blurs the line between truth and falsehood with increasingly powerful strategies supported by artificial intelligence.

Timely text authored by leading political communication scholars on the effects of tCovid-19 on political communication. How governments, journalists, and the public communicate is of interest within the disciplines of political science, media studies, communication studies, and journalism.

Computational Methods for Communication Science showcases the use of innovative computational methods in the study of communication. This book discusses the validity of using big data in communication science and showcases a number of new methods and applications in the fields of text and network analysis. Computational methods have the potential to greatly enhance the scientific study of communication because they allow us to move towards collaborative large-N studies of actual behavior in its social context. This requires us to develop new skills and infrastructure and meet the challenges of open, valid, reliable, and ethical "big data" research. This volume brings together a number of leading scholars in this emerging field, contributing to the increasing development and adaptation of computational methods in communication science. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the journal Communication Methods and Measures.